Business Highlights

NEW YORK (AP) — Energy prices tumbled Thursday after the Federal Reserve predicted that even if the worst of the recession is over, the economy will continue to shrink this year.

Benchmark crude for July delivery fell 99 cents to settle at $61.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices at one point had fallen to a penny within $60. In London, Brent prices fell 66 cents to settle at $59.93 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The ailing economy has pushed energy prices down because consumers and businesses have reduced spending, whether it's on commuting to work or producing goods.

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Xerox CEO Mulcahy retiring, Burns to replace her

NEW YORK (AP) — Xerox Corp. said Thursday that Chief Executive Anne Mulcahy will retire July 1, to be succeeded by Ursula Burns, the printer and copier maker's president.

Xerox will become the largest U.S. company to be headed by a black woman.

Mulcahy, 56, is credited with leading the Norwalk, Conn.-based company out of a deep financial slump earlier in the decade. She was appointed in 2001 after the company fired G. Richard Thoman amid mounting losses.